Major developments in the air

Residents of Wellington region and surrounding areas now have the pleasure of having an ‘Indian Radio Station of their own,’ with the launch of Radio Tarana 105.3 FM frequency recently.

Visitors to the Capital also tell us that they can now hear news bulletins, songs and talkback shows as they drive through the City or sit back and enjoy a drink or a meal in the comfort of their hotel and home.

The launch of the round-the-clock Wellington Frequency fulfils a long cherished dream of offering our quality products and services throughout the country in stages. I am extremely pleased with the encouraging response that we have received from advertisers and listeners in the Wellington region and I am confident that with their support and patronage, the Radio Station will grow from strength to strength, providing the same standard of service that our patrons enjoy in the greater Auckland region.

With an audience target of 30,000 listeners, the Wellington frequency (105.3 FM) will be an extension to the family of Tarana advertisers and listeners. The facility incorporates a fully operational studio with a mix of Auckland and Wellington programmes.

This new facility, coming as it did in times of recession, is reinstatement of our commitment to provide quality programmes and services to our patrons. It also reinforces our commitment to create a strong portal for the Indian community in Wellington and make Tarana their local Indian radio.

The frequency will engage with the local community with breakouts into Auckland broadcast. The content will entail local engagement with Wellington organisations, iwi and the local and central Governments.

Positive impact

The launch of the Wellington 24/7 frequency has had it positive impact, the most important of which is the inquiries being received from Auckland based businesses who are keen to open branches in the Capital. They would now be able to effectively communicate with a captive audience.

Radio Tarana is a station that combines team effort to offer the best to our extended family of advertisers, listeners and well-wishers, not only in New Zealand but also increasingly in other parts of the world, notably Fiji. As a team, our staff work together and debate on programmes and other issues to improve, improvise and deliver as a team. Each of us has areas of responsibilities, targets and tasks. We share credits as a team, while as the Managing Director, I accept the blame for lapses and shortcomings.

Awards & Citations

Professional and trade bodies and other organisations have, in recent years, found us worthy of awards, citations and accolades. We received the ‘Special Recognition Award for Community Broadcasting’ at the annual Radio New Zealand Awards 2008. During the same year, our Presenter Satend Sharma received the ‘Best Foreign Language Programme Award,’ the first ever by an Indian broadcaster.

It is a matter of gratification that over the past four years, Radio Tarana has been creating broadcasting historyby recording a large increase in its listenership to become oneof the top 10 radio stations in the Greater Auckland Region.

Top Position

A recent Research International New Zealand Survey, foundthat overall, Radio Tarana has 4.7% share of all commercialradio listening in Auckland, a higher market share than manyother Auckland commercial stations.

It also achieved the status of for the highest time spent listening Aucklandstation (10 hours 26 minutes weekly).

Each week, Radio Tarana accounts for 66,200 different listeners tuningin Auckland. We have also retained the No 1 spot as thepremier Language Broadcaster in the country.

This survey is the benchmark of any radio station’s position inthe Auckland market and this result is a true and independentreflection of the station’s position among all its competitorsin the Indian and language broadcasting sector.

As we step into our 16th year, I wish to express my gratitude to our advertisers, sponsors, well-wishers, my team at Radio Tarana and most important of all, our listeners for their support and patronage since the first words went on air 16 years ago.

Listener is a strange word.

In fact, we should be called the Listener, because we listen to you all the time, assimilate your views, desires and wants and honour them wherever possible.